u/Darthnelus

Posted the knife a few hours ago, but rule #5

Yoshikazu Tanaka Shirogami #1 Damast 210mm Gyuto. 😍

Yoshikazu Tanaka Shirogami #1 Damast 210mm Gyuto.

Hi TCK! NKD! Thanks for helping me choose the other day.

I'm not a huge damast fan but this is really elegant and subtle, oh man this is one good-looking knife!

The pictures really don't do it justice.

Right out of the box I noticed something that I'm not sure is intentional, but maybe you guys know?

It seems to be getting thicker towards the tip and thinner in the middle and then thicker towards the handle, I don't know, it feels off?

The balance of the knife is more towards the middle, compared to most of the knives I have, but I have yet to try it out on some more veggies to see if it makes any difference.

It is quite heavy which feels like I'm buying a gun of Boris the Blade "Heavy is good, heavy is reliable", I like it, makes me feel like I'm going to get stuff done.

It is crazy sharp right out of the box, but one side seems te be sharpened more than the other?

Not single bevel like, but I had too look twice to see an edge...that being said I really don't know who sharpened it.

I contacted Meesterslijpers and this is what they had to say about it:

Regarding the Nakagawa knives: we know that Satoshi Nakagawa works with multiple grinders/sharpeners, but generally, it is not disclosed exactly who they are. Only when it concerns a well-known collaboration — such as the previous one with Naohito Myojin — is this explicitly mentioned. Since that collaboration ended, we usually no longer receive specific information about who performs the grinding and sharpening work.

The same essentially applies to the Tanaka knives. Only for certain lines, such as the JNS Tanakas, is it known that Maksim Enevoldsen is responsible for grinding and sharpening.

Furthermore, at Meesterslijpers, we have started purchasing "blanks" from Japanese blacksmiths such as Yoshikazu Tanaka, Satoshi Nakagawa, Toshihiro Wakui, and Kisuke Manaka, which are then ground and sharpened by our Master Grinder Berend.

In general, we always try to list as many specifications as possible on our website. If we know which blacksmith, grinder, or sharpener was involved in making a knife, we include that information as well.

We regularly try to uncover this type of information, but Japanese makers are often quite reluctant to disclose it and prefer to keep certain details in-house.

So there's that.

I'm thinking of replacing the handle with an ebony white horn one (see picture) and putting the teak one on a nakiri i have.

I'll give you guys a patina and handle update in a while!

I also bought a new cutting board which came in 4 days ago and is a single piece of walnut, pretty sweet, but I can't use it yet because the oil has to cure for a few weeks appearantly, which is a bummer, but o well first world problems i guess XD

Let me know your thoughts.

P.S.

Hado Sumi white #2 210mm Gyuto for comparison

Bought my first 'real' cutting board and it just got in!

I owned cutting boards in the past ofcourse, but they were all cheap and/or from a certain Swedish furniture store and my recently bought japanese knives don't agree with bamboo appearantly.

This is a single piece of walnut and i think it's very handsome. Really excited!

I want to use it so bad, but the company i bought it from said i have to wait a few days until the tung oil bath has hardened? I bought a maintenance kit with it for the future.

Can't wait!

Tsunehisa Shirogami #2 Tsuchime Migaki Sujihiki 240mm

Bought this a while ago, but didn't really like the handle, so I bought a new one and did the induction trick. 2 minute job!

The glue melted really fast and I could pull it out fairly easy with a lot of glue still on the tang.

I immediately put it in the other handle and tapped it a few times on the bottom.

After drying it won't budge, first time doing that so great succes and really like the end result!

The handle material is Zambian rosewood with oxhorn ferrule.

Hitohira TD SLD Migaki Petty 135mm Walnut Handle

I wanted a petty for a while now, i have one, but i bought it on a flea market for 5 euros and it has no makers mark, so I suspect some chinese knock-off. Good knife for manhandling but I wanted something else.

The Hitohira is a pretty knife, not super sharp ootb, but with a few passovers on the strop it passed the paper test.

There is just one spot on the knife where it looks to jave had a sticker or something? but I can't get it out. I tried alcohol and acetone but to no avail. It's not super bothersome and it doesn't really show up on the pictures i took so I'll just leave it be.

Thoughts on this one?